It was barely two years ago that UConn occupied a high spot in the athletic world. In January 2011, the football team played in the Fiesta Bowl. A couple of months later, the men's basketball team made an amazing run through the postseason and won the most unlikely of its three national titles. The women's basketball team reached the national semifinals.

All was just wonderful.

Since then, the floor has dropped from underneath UConn's feet and it has nothing to do with success, or lack thereof, in any sporting arena. It all has to do with the seismic landscape shifts, tremors so violent that UConn couldn't find a foothold and thus far has been left adrift.

It looks more and more like UConn's drifting in the sea of uncertainty is going to last far longer than anyone would have hoped. On Monday, news came that the seven Catholic non-FBS members of the Big East — St. John's, Villanova, Georgetown, Marquette, DePaul, Providence and Seton Hall — met with Big East commissioner Mike Aresco to talk about the direction of the league, if there is one. There is no doubt that breaking away from the Big East was the main topic of discussion at the meeting.

It is unlikely to happen. In order to even begin to survive, those schools would have to dissolve the conference and take all the assets and branding with them. They have a majority vote and the necessary 75 percent needed to make the move, at least until July 1 when the incoming new members become official.

Regardless of that, it's arguable that a basketball-only league would draw even a fraction of the television contract money that a revamped Big East with football would command. Experts who know such things say the revamped Big East is going to be seriously low-balled in contract talks, but something is better than nothing.

The seven Catholic schools need that something. They are the ones truly caught in the

See UCONN, Page 6C

soup that is realignment. How does this all affect UConn? If the Catholic schools decide to stick with the Big East, UConn (and Cincinnati and South Florida) are stuck in the waiting game. To some extent, they are reduced to begging for inclusion in one of the so-called Big Five conferences.

But if — and it's a huge if — the Catholic schools decided to break away and take the Big East's assets and branding with it, UConn would be in enormous trouble. Less than two

See UCONN, Page 6C

years ago, UConn wielded power. It may soon wield the power of cooked spaghetti. Forget the Mayan prediction. If the Catholic schools break away, UConn's world will effectively end, at least the one it has known.

It was just more than a decade ago that the school and the state sunk massive amounts of resources into making the jump to FBS status. It was a financially driven move, with former athletic director Lew Perkins more than aware that football would soon be the sport driving the money bus. With all the conference shifts and the Big East having only limited access to the impending BCS playoff system, the tires on the buses of UConn, Cincinnati and South Florida have been all but flattened.

A breakaway by the Catholic schools would mean those three would have to find a home for their football teams and their basketball teams. A split-conference existence is no way to live for the likes of UConn, but it might have no choice. It might be able to stick football in the revamped Big East, if it remains intact on the football side, and go with the Catholics in basketball. That would further hamper the football product, but the only other choice would be football independence.

One of the vapid Housewives of New Jersey has a better chance surviving in the wilderness than UConn football has of surviving as an independent.

None of this, though, is likely to happen. The Catholics have nowhere to go. At the moment, UConn has nowhere to go. They are united by their lack of a more viable destination.

This is what has become of UConn. Two years ago, the school was athletic royalty. Now it searches for a way back into the good graces.

Picture Dan Akroyd in "Trading Places." Hope is hardly lost, but there is enough going on to make UConn and its fans extremely nervous.

Post a reader comment

We encourage your feedback and dialog. Please be civil and respectful.If you're witty, to the point and quotable, your reader comments may also be included on the Around the Towns page of The Sunday Republican. Readers must be registered and logged in to post comments on the site. Registration is free. Click Here to register.
A Subscription is not required to post comments only a Registration.